First, combine the soymilk & vinegar and set aside. Next, in a small bowl throw in the flour and cut in the vegetable shortening with a fork. Next, pour in the milk mixture and gently stir until the batter comes together.
The key to great biscuits is to not handle them too much. The more you stir them or knead them, the tougher they become. This rule follows for the next part as well.
On a clean surface, generously spread all -purpose flour to cover the surface you will be working on. Place the batter on the floured surface, and throw a little more flour on top. With a rolling pin, roll out the dough, but not too thin, because these biscuits don't rise a whole lot. Next, you can use an empty round can or glass to cut out the shape of the biscuit. I usually end up cutting out biscuits and re-kneading the leftovers a couple times to end up with about 6-8 biscuits.
Place the biscuits on a greased baking pan or iron skillet, put a small pad of butter on top of each one, and put them in the oven.
Bake these biscuits at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 15-20 minutes or until slightly browned on top.
Enjoy!

The original Crisco Shortening and Crisco Butter-Flavored Shortening are two different products. If you go out of your way to make things difficult, then of course nothing will be vegan. I'm not saying the original is, since I dunno where the mono- and diglycerides came from, but why would anyone pick up the one that clearly says on the label it tastes like butter? We all do what we can but some of us are on an extremely tight budget so don't give us a hard time if we can't stop in at some expensive health food store for small kitchen staples.

I totally agree with what you are saying, veganfilmjunkie, but I just wanted to point out that the reason everyone is talking about the Crisco butter-flavored shortening in particular is because that is the specific type mentioned by the author in the recipe. We all misunderstand or misread ingredients on products from time to time, so its nice when one vegan can help out another. That way we don't ALL have to write Crisco or whatever company to decipher their ingredient lists! ;-)

Just a note on the "vegan butter flavored shortening" I wrote crisco and this was there reply:

Dear Ms. VandeZande,

This letter is in reference to your recent contact with Crisco. We appreciate the time you have taken to contact us and most certainly enjoy hearing from consumers who enjoy our products.

In response to your inquiry, the butter flavor did originate as a dairy ingredient.

Again, thank you for taking the time to contact us. If you should have further questions or need additional information, please visit our website at www.crisco.com or contact us at 800-766-7309, Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. EST.

I would substitute the Crisco with Spectra shortening. It IS vegan, and non-hydrogenized. This is a similar recipe to mine. I can't wait to try the vinegar!! That might just be the magical ingredient I'm missing. Thanks!

Also, if anyone cares, you can make the biscuits "brown" by melting some Earth Balance and spreading a thin layer on the biscuits before baking. It adds a little bit of yum!

I liked this recipe because it was easy and I had all of the ingredients on hand. I had to add more flour though because it was really sticky! This was the first time I had ever made biscuits from scratch and I didn't realize just how thick the biscuits need to be when you roll them out. And I thought they were done even though they didn't get very golden. Just a few things to watch out for for any other first-timers!

This recipe was great! Definitely the best biscuits I have ever made. Next time I would use 1-2 Tablespoons less soymilk as the batter was quite sticky and they spread a bit too much in the oven. I made 6 big biscuits and in the future I would probably halve the recipe so I don't have leftovers.

I've been trying to find a perfect recipe for biscuits because my last few tries have been disasters (I'm assumed because of the soy milk). These were AMAZING. They tasted exactly like the biscuits my mom used to make! They rose very nicely :) I got 13 biscuits out of the batch, I could probably cut the recipe in half next time because now I'll just eat them all!I added some fake Parmesan cheese and rosemary to the batter and used vegan butter (earth balance) instead of shortening, just because I didn't have any. Oh, an rice vinegar because I had just run out of white, didn't taste anything out of the ordinary, so I assume that worked alright too! I also sprinkled some of the Parmesan on top of the butter slabs before I put them in the oven.